EAW Pain for Pride Festival (2018)
| city = , | lastevent = Culture Crisis (2018) | nextevent = Midsummer Massacre (2018) | lastevent2 = EAW Pain For Pride X | nextevent2 = EAW Pain for Pride XII }} Pain for Pride Festival (also billed in print ads as Pain For Pride XI) was the eleventh annual Pain for Pride professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event and EAW Network event produced by EAW for their Empire, Dynasty, Showdown, and Voltage brands. The event took place June 21 through 24 at the in , . The card comprised twenty matches. In the main event, Diamond Cage defeated Rex McAllister to become the new EAW Champion. In another main event match, Astraea Jordan defeated Madison Kaline to become the number one contender for the EAW Unified Women's Championship. Other matches saw Noah Reigner become Mr. Cash in the Vault, as well as a career versus career match where Theron Nikolas defeated CM Banks. Production Background EAW partnered with Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) to host the event at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the location of EDC's flagship event in Las Vegas every year, for 4 days. By mid-March 2018, Pain For Pride XI had already sold 280,000 tickets for the entire event. Of these tickets, 200,000 of the tickets purchased were passes for multiple days of the event, 130,000 of the tickets purchased were for all 4 days, 50,000 were gold pass tickets including Pain For Pride Axxess, and 30,000 premium pass tickets including PFP Axxess, EAW Hall of Fame attendance, all 4 festival days, room & travel accommodations, among others. Storylines At Showdown's Supershow EAW Wrath of the Dragon (2018), Diamond Cage won the No Way Out Match to become the number one contender for the EAW Championship. Later that night, Rex McAllister retained the EAW Championship against Cameron Ella Ava, confirming Rex McAllister vs Diamond Cage for the Showdown Pain for Pride main event. On the May 19 episode of Showdown, a confrontation between CM Banks and Theron Nikolas ended in Banks offering a "solution" to their problems in the form of a Career versus Career match. On the May 17 episode of Empire, two major matches for Pain for Pride were announced by GM Flannery McCoy: Sienna Jade versus Stephanie Matsuda in a title unification match and Madison Kaline versus Astraea Jordan in a #1 Contenders match with the winner getting to face the winner of the aforementioned Jade versus Matsuda on the first episode of the next season. Matches The Festival As the name suggests, in addition to Pain For Pride XI being a wrestling event, it is also a music festival. EAW reporter Kathy Kush stated while announcing details for the event, "The Las Vegas Motor Speedway is set up as a 'miniature town', due to the multiple stages that are all taking place at once featuring performers and notable DJs. This will return for Pain for Pride Festival, with rides, attractions, as well as stages featuring other performers for the entire day beginning at 3 PM and well into the night – even while action is taking place." Jumbo titantrons displaying the Pain For Pride matches are to be placed throughout the park, "making the action visible to just about everyone in the venue", even if they are watching an artist perform. Performing artists Pain For Pride Festival includes a diverse group of artists from genres such as hip-hop, rap, pop, rock, heavy metal, and electronic. Headliners for the festival included Eminem, Lana Del Rey, Metallica, Migos, Alicia Keys, SZA, Logic, Deftones, Lupe Fiasco, and Lil Uzi Vert. Artists from the Pain For Pride soundtrack were also added to the festival such as Tame Impala, Portugal. The Man, Local H, and Sir Sly among others. The lineup underwent an array of changes before its official announcement - the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Cardi B were originally slotted for Del Rey and Keys' spots but ultimately not brought in due to the Peppers' break from tour and work on new music along with Cardi B announcing her pregnancy. Rumors also swirled for weeks prior to the announcement that acts like The Weeknd, Post Malone, and 30 Seconds To Mars were approached to headline. Event schedule During the 4 days of the festival various artists are to perform on one of 5 stages: "Cosmic Meadow", "Wasteland", "Neon Garden", "Basspod", and "Sky Bridge". Each stage besides "Cosmic Meadow" houses a certain style of music (ex. "Wasteland" being the place for rock and metal artists). June 21st, 2018 (Thursday) TBA June 22nd, 2018 (Friday) TBA June 23rd, 2018 (Saturday) TBA June 24th, 2018 (Sunday) TBA Category:Elite Answers Wrestling Category:EAW Category:EAW CPV's Category:2018